Month: February 2018

Healthcare organizations must be prepared for the unexpected times when cyber criminals attack their data networks with the intention of extortion. It is expected that HIPAA-compliant entities are already somewhat prepared against cyber attacks because […]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights published in its January 2018 Cybersecurity Newsletter the increased extortion attempts on healthcare organizations in the past two years. Ransomware attacks encrypt electronic health […]

When patients complain of privacy violation, healthcare providers need to know how to deal with it. For an efficient response, the organization must have policies that cover complaints procedure. The staff should know how to […]

A privacy breach occurred in the Puerto Rico Health Plan Triple-S Advantage, which affected 36,000 plan members. The cause of the breach was a mailing error that disclosed the plan members’ sensitive information to incorrect […]

The banking Trojan Ursnif was typically used for attacking financial institutions. But the malware is now used to attack different organizations including those in the healthcare industry. The researchers at the security firm Barkly detected […]

According to Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), there are five current cybersecurity threats that healthcare organizations need to watch out for to prevent unauthorized access to their networks and protected health information. The […]

A Florida Veterans Affairs Medical Center set up a Wi-Fi network without coordinating with the VA’s Office of Information & Technology (OI&T). The result of such action was the introduction of vulnerabilities that could lead […]

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office presented a new tool for reporting online data breach. The objective of this tool is to assist breached entities in quickly submitting breach notices. As demanded by the Massachusetts data […]

Ron’s Pharmacy Services in San Diego, CA discovered that an email account containing limited protected health information of 6,781 patients was compromised. The pharmacy noticed on October 3, 2017 the suspicious activity on an employee’s […]

Sophos, an online security company, released a report saying that victims of ransomware attacks are likely to have more attacks within a year. It pointed out that healthcare companies will continue to be the target […]

The states of South Dakota and Alabama currently do not have breach notification laws. However, the scenario will be different for South Dakota soon if their State Legislature approves proposed bill SB 62 passed by […]

Partners HealthCare System recently notified 2,600 patients that their protected health information was compromised. The breach incident was discovered in May 2017. Under HIPAA Rules, Partners HealthCare should have notified OCR and the victims up […]

Press America, Inc is a mail service used by CVS Pharmacy. Because of an accidental disclosure of 41 individual’s protected health information, CVS Pharmacy sued Press America, Inc. CVS Pharmacy works as a business associate […]

AllScripts was attacked by ransomware last week resulting in the unavailability of their services. Thousands of healthcare providers cannot access patient data or the e-prescription service. AllScripts now faces a class action lawsuit filed by […]

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and state Representative Jason Saine introduced the Act to Strengthen Identity Theft Protections on January 8, 2018. The introduction of this new data breach notification bill was a response […]

660 patients of Eastern Maine Medical Center were notified of a potential exposure of their protected health information. The portable hard drive that contained the sensitive information disappeared from its State Street facility in Bangor, […]

The Kansas Attorney General fined Pearlie Mae’s Compassion and Care LLC in Topeka, Kansas together with its owners for its failure to protect patient and employee records. The civil monetary penalty amounted to $8,750. According […]

Aetna recently settled a class action lawsuit paying $17.2 million for a data breach last July. The breach involved sending letters to members when details of HIV medications became visible through the plastic windows of […]

Hacking or IT incidents is the major cause of healthcare data breaches of 2017. 17 out of the top 20 were of this cause. In comparison to the previous years, hacking/IT incidents only accounted for […]

This article compares the largest healthcare data breaches from 2015 to 2017. The past two years were record-breaking with respect to healthcare data breaches. What about 2017? The healthcare industry had a bad year on […]